1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), and more particularly, to an LCD having a substantially reduced manufacturing cost and substantially improved display quality.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”) typically includes a liquid crystal panel having a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines disposed thereon, a gate driver which transmits a plurality of gate signals to gate lines of the plurality of gate lines, and a data driver which transmits a plurality of data signals to data lines of the plurality of data lines.
In conventional LCDs, a gate driver is implemented by mounting gate driver integrated circuits (“ICs”) in a form such as of a tape carrier package (“TCP”) or chip-on glass (“COG”), for example. However, research is being conducted to find better manufacturing methods in terms of manufacturing costs, product size and design, for example. More particularly, a method of mounting a gate driver, which generates gate signals using amorphous silicon thin-film transistors (“a-Si TFTs”), on a liquid crystal panel is being researched.
A gate driver mounted on a liquid crystal panel typically includes a plurality of stages, individual stages of which sequentially output gate signals. In addition, each of the individual stages includes at least one a-Si TFT.
However, driving capability of an a-Si TFT varies according to an ambient temperature in which the a-Si TFT is operated. In particular, when the ambient temperature decreases, the driving capability of the a-Si TFT substantially deteriorates. As a result, the a-Si TFT cannot output a gate signal having voltage level which is sufficient to turn on/off a switching device associated with a pixel.
The gate signals are generated using a clock signal and a clock bar signal which are provided to the gate driver, and the clock signal and the clock bar signal swing between a level of a gate-on voltage and a level of a gate-off voltage. Therefore, an LCD which controls the level of the gate-on voltage and the level of the gate-off voltage based on ambient temperature is required.